Sandwiching in History Tour Junction Bridge, Arkansas River, Little Rock & North Little Rock June 5Th, 2020 By: Callie Williams
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Sandwiching In History Tour Junction Bridge, Arkansas River, Little Rock & North Little Rock June 5th, 2020 By: Callie Williams Introduction Good afternoon, my name is Callie Williams, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. Welcome to the June 2020 Sandwiching in History tour of the Junction Bridge in downtown Little Rock. This month we are presenting the history of the Junction Bridge over the Arkansas River between the historic Argenta community of North Little Rock and the downtown historic core of Little Rock. Much of the research for this script is based on previous work done by Bryan McDade, Curator of Collections at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in downtown Little Rock. The city of Little Rock was named after a geological formation found along the banks of the Arkansas River known as “La Petite Roche”, or the little rock. This name was given to an outcropping of rocks near a low landing area by early French explorers of the area, including Jean-Baptise Benard de la Harpe, who is the namesake of the nearby La Harpe boulevard. The little rock was in contrast to the much larger “Big Rock” bluff found just a couple of miles up the river along the northern riverbank. The big rock bluffs in North Little Rock were a large natural landmark for the area. The Native American tribes of the region used both the Big Rock and the Little Rock as prominent landmarks for travel through the area. The plateau along the top of the Big Rock eventually became the home of the former Fort Logan H. Roots military base and is now home to the Towbin Healthcare Center of the Department of Veterans Affairs. A remnant of the namesake little rock formation is still visible just beside the foot of the Junction Bridge in Riverfront Park in downtown Little Rock. The central Arkansas region was home to the Quapaw people when the first European explorers reached the region in the early 1700s. Before the Quapaw living along the Arkansas River were forced to leave in 1824, there was a community of mixed Quapaw-French families that lived in the area of what is now Little Rock, which inspired the name “Quapaw Quarter” for Little Rock’s historic downtown neighborhoods. Early French explorers in the area referred to the small outcropping of rock along the south bank of the river as “le Petit Rocher” (the Little Rock) and the name appeared on maps of the area by 1800. The first immigrant settler near the Little Rock was William Lewis who built a cabin along the River in 1812. Although he didn’t stay in the area for long, but he did file a claim on the land. A permanent settlement was founded in the spring of 1820 near the rock, with a post office established under the name Little Rock at the site by March of the same year. Soon, this new settlement drew the attention of land speculators who recognized the value of the site as an up and coming trade and political center. These speculators soon staked dubious claims to the town, even renaming its “Arkopolis”, and started selling lots. Another added issue was the planned move of the territorial capitol to Little Rock in June of 1821. The land claims were eventually settled, the town was renamed Little Rock, and the territorial capitol was moved from Arkansas Post in the Fall of 1821. The town was officially incorporated as town in 1831, and as a city in 1835. By 1850 Little Rock was home to over 2000 residents and was an important economic, political, and civic hub for the region. The Arkansas River was the main transportation network for the area and Little Rock was an ideal port for a wide swath of central Arkansas. The population of the city would explode from over 3000 in 1860 to over 12,000 in 1870, and to over 38,000 by 1900. Junction Bridge During the early settlement decades of the town of Little Rock, the only way to cross the Arkansas River was by ferry. Travelers and traders would arrive along the Arkansas River and would use the steamboats that plied the Arkansas River to transport their supplies and goods. The first steamboat to travel up the Arkansas River to Little Rock was the Eagle, which arrived on March 16, 1822. Those wishing to cross the river would need to use the various ferryboats to transport themselves and any cargo. By the 1870s, various railroad lines across Arkansas allowed for faster and easier transportation, but all cargo and passengers still had to be ferried across the river at Little Rock. In 1873, The Baring Cross Bridge railroad bridge was started by the Cairo and Fulton Railroad. This wooden truss railroad bridge opened in late 1873. In 1877, a wooden highway deck was added above the tracks and operated as a toll bridge for the transport of people, wagons, and animals. The success of this elevated highway bridge soon prompted a local ferryman to build a pontoon bridge, also operated by toll, at the river level in competition. By the mid-1880s, the Baring Cross Bridge was in shambles due to deterioration. The Union Bridge Company of New York state was hired to rebuild it with steel camelback trusses, a new lower highway deck alongside the tracks, and new electric lights. It was reopened in January of 1886. This new bridge eventually fell victim to the flood of 1927 despite the railroad’s attempt to safeguard the bridge by trying to ballast it with fully loaded coal cars. It was rebuilt after the flood and still operates, with some 1970s modifications, as the main railroad bridge across the Arkansas River today. As the Baring Cross Bridge was under constant use in the early 1880s, it became clear that another bridge was needed across the Arkansas River at Little Rock. During the early 1880s, The Little Rock, Mississippi River & Texas Railroad partnered with the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railroad to complete a line of track stretching from the Gulf Coast to Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma. A new bridge at Little Rock was needed to achieve this goal. In 1883 the Little Rock Junction Railway and Bridge Company was formed. The first load of timber for the construction project arrived at the little rock on the Arkansas River on March 3, 1884. After the timber arrived, the construction workers shared a bottle of wine to toast the new bridge project. The newly formed bridge company hired Major Sickles, a consulting engineer, to oversee construction of the bridge and soon preparations were made to start to build the piers in the Arkansas River. By April, construction workers started assembling the caissons, large water- tight chambers, that would be used to build the bridge’s piers at intervals across the river. The first, two hundred-ton caisson was sunk into and under the river all the way to bedrock. The water inside the chamber was then pumped out and the muddy river bottom was dredged using a large system of pressurized air pumps. This process was witnessed firsthand by an unidentified reporter for the Arkansas Gazette who reported on the construction in an article published on June 28th, 1884. The reporter visited the bridge company office, near the construction site, where he was provided with a full set of rubber overclothes, including long boots, pants, coat, and a rubber hat. The reporter was then taken by flatboat to the caisson where he saw the water and mud being pumped from the riverbed. The reporter was led on to the top of the iron caisson, a worker soon emerged from a hatch and the reporter descended into the dark confines of the metal cylinder in the middle of the river. After climbing down into a small compartment that was then pressurized, the reporter witnessed the system that allowed for water and mud to be pumped from the bottom of the river. The reporter then followed the workers into the larger chamber of the caisson all the way to the bottom of what had been excavated, at a depth of 58 feet below the surface of the river. They ended up standing almost six stories from the surface, and over 20 feet below the surrounding riverbed, as they excavated toward bedrock. The men inside worked by candlelight to push mud toward pipes that would pull it out of the bottom of the caisson. After the reporter’s journey to below the bottom of the river, the reporter returned to the surface and returned his rubber suit, likening it to a journey to the bottom of the sea. Once the workers reached bedrock at the bottom of each of the caissons, they began filling the negative space they had created with concrete, creating the structural piers for the bridge’s superstructure. Interestingly, in newspaper reports of the time, it was noted that during construction of the bridge piers at least 3 “Arkansas toothpicks” or large knives had been found on the riverbed. During the construction of the upper superstructure of the bridge, there were two major accidents that caused injuries among the workers. In September of 1884, a boiler exploded at the construction site, injuring several workers. Also, in November of the same year several workers were injured while working assembling parts of the superstructure with a battering ram. Vibrations from the process of pounding in assembly bolts caused a supporting plank to fall, which was supporting a team of workers, who fell onto a derrick.